Movie-licensed games have invariably turned out to be piles of old tosh - with a few notable exceptions - but that's about to change according to Sega of America's VP of marketing, Scott Steiner.

Why are licensed games commonly such rushed disasters? Steiner explains: "Hollywood really can throw a grenade to game companies; they'd throw a license grenade over the wall and game companies would have six months to build a game and market it. No surprise the game might not have been the greatest."

But, discussing Sega's recent expanded partnership with Marvel, Steiner explains how things look set to improve.

"As publishers and the different movie studios are recognizing how important videogames are to the marketing of a film to the [target] demographic, movie studios realise that they can't trivialise the interactive space," Steiner told Next-Gen.biz.

"In 1991 or '92 the [movie] studios saw videogames as sort of chump change. They'd bounce perhaps a property six months before a game, basically when the movie was in the can, and publishers tried to crank it out with using an existing engine, threw a couple of artists on it, and shipped a 16-bit game," he goes on to explain.

"The whole industry, both industries, have coupled together and have evolved or advanced their craft to a point where both are taken extremely seriously and that just wasn'p the case two years ago."

More like GoldenEye 007-quality stunners then, please.

via cvg ...

via cvg

As we told you in our early hands-on preview, Eidos' remake of the original Tomb Raider game is polishing up very nicely, and minds behind the update have crawled out their development tomb to talk about it in this 'behind the scenes' video.

As the interestingly-named producer, LuLu LaMer, explains, TomB Raider Anniversary modernises the locations and some of the best puzzles seen in the original game.

The aim is to create a game that feels new but at the same time retains the essence of the original for those who loved it back in the PSone era.

Take a look, and check out the gameplay trailer we posted on Friday.

Trailer Here ...

Are we going to see Call of Duty 4 announced this week? Well, that's what we're speculating as CoD and CoD 2 developer Infinity Ward has said it's making an announcement on... something this week.

In a post on it's official forums, the developer has said, "Insert boring update about some mundane 'what we're doing' detail that no one actually cares about (such as new employees or kleenex testing) because they're just reading these updates for the glimpse hope that we'll slip and say something we're not suppose to about our next title, or that we're going to allude to the fact that maybe, just maybe something that actually is interesting is coming up in the near future (and by near future I mean next Saturday)."

It continues, listing "Amazing Things To Happen On April 28th" from history and finally adds, "2007 - What goes down this April 28th is equal to, if not surpasses, the magnitude of any of those. Whose ready?!"

So will it be Call of Duty 4? We can but wait and see.

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Hironobu Sakaguchi's highly anticipated Blue Dragon is continuing its aggressive download content campaign next week, April 27 with the arrival of new a random dungeon generator.

The generator will weigh in at 300 Microsoft points (£2.55 GBP) and won't be the last Blue Dragon downloadable we see either. Sakaguchi told CVG last month: "Japan has a set of three downloadable contents planned for post-launch and that's also what we'll be doing in North America and Europe. We'll be rolling out downloadable content over the course of four to five months post-release."

And if you haven't worked out how the random dungeon generator, Sakaguchi-san offers an explanation: "each time you enter a new dungeon you actually see a different pattern, a different set of characters, enemies and environment."

That should add a bit of variety then. Look out for Blue Dragon in this side of the world in September.

via cvg ...

It's Monday - do you know what that means? We can catch up on the now three-day old Bungie community update!

This weekend the Halo developer decided to slip on the iron gauntlet and defend the rather short length of the forthcoming multiplayer beta, which will sit on your Crackdown `ownload menu for only three weeks.

"I've been asked a few times why the impending Beta is only three short weeks long," the update reads. "Well, obviously the number one reason is that the longer we're spending resources taking care of the Beta, the less time we're applying what we've learned from it to the final game."

The Bungie website man continues: "The reasons you're getting three maps is similar, but has as much to do with our normal production schedule as anything else. It's easier to think of why you're not getting the rest of the maps. They're not done yet."

"All are geometry complete, but they're being polished and tuned for graphics and gameplay 'til the last minute," he says, adding that the ones we'll be playing next month are the best balanced and most complete so far.

"But they will change slightly, maybe noticeably when the game finally ships in fall. So by all means, learn 'em well next month, but don't get used to anything you see in there. Objects may have shifted while in flight."

The multiplayer beta with its three playable maps goes live on May 16 - just weeks away, and as Bungie says: "statistically, three weeks is going to seem like a pretty long time when you look at the hours you log on the game." Let's hope so.

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via cvg

Sony Computer Entertainment appears to have dropped the name of Kratos' ultra-violent PSP outing, God of War: Chains of Olympus.

The news comes from super-secret marketing site Island of Rhodes, which seems to have spelled out the entire title of the mysterious God of War game.

We're assuming Chains of Olympus is the much-touted PSP series entry, because we can't really see a 'III' fitting on the end of that logo - though the third, PS3 entry is undoubtedly under construction.

We'll let you know when Sony gets out of bed so that we can bother them.

As for the second PS2 game, that's due out in Europe this Friday. Look for our review in the next few days. ...

Heres the press release:

Black Bean and Koch Media UK are pleased to announce today the release date for Superbike World Championships on PS2 and PSP

SBK-07: Superbike World Championship promises to deliver the closest experience to the biking world championship: feel the sensation of speed and the adrenaline pumping during dangerous overtakes, push your bike to the limits in one of the 13 official licensed circuit, immerse yourself in the glamourous atmosphere of the championship, unlocking tons of extras, including beautiful pictures of umbrella girls.

All the race teams and big name riders feature in the game and with 22 bikes on screen, this is your chance to go head to head with your biking heros to win one of the most exciting bike racing championships ever.

SBK-07: Superbike World Championship features an arcade mode that allows all race fans and speed addicts to enjoy a full on biking experience, including post-race highlights. It is also a game for the biker or hard core race game fans, thanks to accurate physics models, telemetry and bike setting: which are the best tires to use with different weather conditions available? Would you prefer speed or control?

The game has been developed with the help of SBK World Championship team and will feature all the riders from the 2007, all the tracks and all of the atmosphere from one of the most exciting racing championships in the world.

SBK World Championship will be available in UK on PS 2 and PSP from the 18th of May 2007 at SRP £29.99 ...

via cvg

Sony Computer Entertainment has officially announced a price drop for the PSP to £129.99, effective from Friday May 4.

Alongside the price drop for the hardware SCEE is also rolling out a new range of Platinum titles for the handsome asking price of £14.99. The first titles in the range will be Ridge Racer 2, Tekken, Killzone, Loco Roco, and Moto GP.

"PSP is unique and is constantly evolving. It offers the widest palette of mobile entertainment, from gaming to video, music, photos and internet," explained Ray Maguire, Managing Director Sony Computer Entertainment UK.

"But now the exciting possibility of connecting remotely to PLAYSTATION3 makes PSP more relevant than ever. So what better time to offer a brand new price point, and the launch of five new Platinum titles?"

We've got our fingers crossed that none of you bought Sony's handheld in the last week. ...

hi - i'd like to announce version 2.10 of PSPSeq; a homebrew application used for composing music on the PSP. some of the new features and fixes in this version of PSPSeq include:

- automated interpolation of synthesis parameters
- more track copying options to simplify and speed composing music
- button combos enabling instant solo/unmute of all tracks, copy/paste of synthesis parameters, and removal of hits in a track
- automated shifting of hits in a track for easy echo effects and arpeggiation
- ability to record to ms0:/PSP/MUSIC directory for playback of loops and songs outside of PSPSeq
- more visualization modes and new visualization controls
- access to time, battery life and available flash memory within PSPSeq
- new features for using PSPSeq in live environments
- optimized WAV file playback
- other minor bug fixes and optimizations to screen and audio rendering
- many new sample songs and loops

PSPSeq 2.10 can be downloaded here:

http://dspmusic.org/psp/PSPSeq210.zip

mp3s of some of the songs made with PSPSeq can be found here:

http://dspmusic.org/psp

PSPSeq also has a mailing list/forum at googlegroups:

http://groups.google.com/group/pspseq

enjoy!

ethan
dspmusic.org/psp ...